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“Does she know?”
Bethany stared past me at the front door, barely shaking her head. “Not yet. But I’m going to do it right this time. Really be there for the baby and make up for all my mistakes.”
My heart broke for Penny. All she’d ever wanted from her mom was to be loved. The way a mother should love her daughter in the simplest, most natural way in the world.
For Beth, it was easier to start over than to show up and be the dependable mother Penny needed her to be. I was angry for her all over again.
“Goodbye, Bethany.” I turned toward the house.
“She loves her like a mom, you know.” Beth’s words hit me square in the back, and I paused. “The nanny. Penny loves her.”
My jaw tightened. “Lark is not the nanny.”
Her calculating smirk was back. “I know. Just wanted to see it for myself.”
“See what?”
She lifted a finger to point at me. “That. The constipated look you get when someone shits all over something you love.” She shrugged. “Your fierce loyalty is one of your best qualities.”
I wanted to bite back with a pettyclearly not one of yours, but I shut my mouth. I was too tired to go another round with Bethany when it never mattered in the long run.
When I stared at her, she dropped a hand to her flat stomach. “He offered to marry me, but I don’t think I’m going to say yes.”
I swallowed, unsure of this new ground we were covering. “Okay.”
Tension hung thick in the air.
“You deserve her, you know. Penny.” A sad smile crossed her face as she opened the car door. “She worships the ground you walk on. Maybe one of us should show her what a happy, functional relationship should look like.”
I waved a weak goodbye and stomped toward the house. I hated to know she was right.
34
LARK
“You’re doing great!The directorlovedthe direction you took the character.” The director of photography was running through the day’s notes as someone was touching up my makeup. “Also, when you turn to shoo the cat away, turn your shoulders, not just your neck. Those pesky neck wrinkles are hard to edit out in post.”
My hand immediately went to my neck.Neck wrinkles? Isn’t that normal?“Okay, I got it.”
She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed before turning and calling over her shoulder. “You’re doing great!”
I sat back and looked to the ceiling as I let the makeup artist blot fresh powder beneath my eyes.
This is everything I have wanted. Why do I still feel so sad?
So far the shoot for the television series had been a dream. The director was friendly and kind, and the cast and crew were tight and spent lots of time together outside the shooting schedule. Chase Singleton was not at all the self-absorbed playboy he was painted in the media, at least as far as I could tell, and Eliza Stone, one of the principal female actors, was professional, if not a bit frosty. It was a new chapter and a stark difference from my previous experience in LA, when I’d witnessed back-stabbing, snark, and outright lies to get ahead.
It was different and fresh somehow.
Yet my mind and my heart were still stuck in Outtatowner, Michigan, with a particular grouchy single dad and his precocious little girl. I even missed the chaos of organizing the lives of three stinky college boys.
I looked at my phone again and reread our text thread, heightening the ever-present hollow feeling in my chest.
I sighed and slipped my phone back into my bag. I needed to stop comparing LA to Michigan. There were so few similarities, and somehow California always came out lacking.
I just needed to give it time. The gig was the break I had wanted, and filming would wrap in a few weeks, if all continued to go according to plan.
And then I’d be home.
